Westmoreland Transit open house attendees want longer hours, shorter waits for bus trips

More frequent bus trips available at later hours and with shorter wait times were among the top requests passengers had for the Westmoreland Transit Authority at a public input session Tuesday afternoon.

Eliot Rivera of Greensburg said he’d like to see the authority restore its level of service to pre-pandemic levels.

Rivera said he often takes one bus from his home at the Hawksworth Garden Apartments on North Main Street to the authority’s downtown Greensburg Transit Center, where he boards another bus to reach the Walmart store in Hempfield, west of town.

“That’s usually how I go shopping,” he said, but he has to return home earlier now.

“The No. 5 route was cut down,” he said. “The last bus used to leave out of (the Transit Center) at 8:15 p.m. Now it’s 6:15.”

Rivera was among about a dozen bus riders who had stopped to share their transit tales and opinions halfway through the three-hour open house at the Transit Center.

Their input and results from an online survey will be among information consultant Kimley-Horn considers as it drafts a transit development plan for the authority.

Other passengers complained of having to wait for up to two hours to transfer between connecting buses and of buses not arriving to their scheduled stop on time.

New Castle resident Alene Francis said, because of infrequently scheduled bus trips, she often has to stay overnight in Pittsburgh to switch from another authority’s route to a Westmoreland Transit route that takes her to Greensburg for visits with her son and to the Westmoreland County Courthouse.

“I have to leave New Castle at 6:35 a.m. to get the bus to bring me into Pittsburgh,” she said. “Then I have to wait for the 10:30 bus to bring me (to Greensburg). I’m done at 2:15, and then I have to wait to catch the 3:55 bus back to Pittsburgh. I miss the New Castle bus, so I wait overnight and then go home the next day.

“Two hours is too long to wait for the bus.”

Other riders said they take advantage of Westmoreland Transit bus routes that fit their schedule.

Juliana Harbulak of Irwin is glad she was able to begin riding an authority bus to work at the county courthouse instead of driving.

“It’s easier for me and cost-efficient as well,” she said. “My truck takes a lot of gas, so I save money this way. It’s really nice to have it.”

Flora Smith rides a bus from her home in Jeannette to provide care for an elderly Greensburg resident.

She said the bus “gets me where I’ve got to go. I don’t have to wait long.”

One open house attendee left a written comment suggesting an app that would allow riders to track the location of their bus.

Alan Blahovec, transit authority executive director, said everything is up for reconsideration — including bus stop locations and the buses themselves – as part of the transit development plan.

“We want to take a comprehensive look at everything we do and see how we can serve the residents better,” he said. “This plan will be like a blueprint, not just for immediate changes but over the next several years.”

Blahovec acknowledged that the authority’s service level hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels, but neither has ridership.

“We had a significant commuter service to Pittsburgh pre-covid,” he said. “We’ll always have some; I just don’t know what that will be. Those people haven’t all come back yet.”

Ridership way down

He said ridership on the authority’s fixed bus routes is at about 40% of the pre-pandemic level. The shared ride program — where riders may not travel directly to their destination, depending on the needs of other passengers — is doing better, at about 75%.

As for vehicles, Blahovec noted that more than half of the 41 buses available for fixed routes are larger 49-passenger models that can accommodate commuter trips.

“We found out during covid that it would have been nice to do more local service,” he said. “But you can’t use those big buses to get around Greensburg and Jeannette. It just doesn’t work that well.

“So: Do we need to look at other equipment and come up with long-term plan?”

April 23 deadline for input

Transit authority customers will have another chance to provide input in person, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 1, during the Spring Spectacular Community Festival at the Westmoreland Fairgrounds.

April 23 is the deadline to complete the online survey, which can be accessed through the authority website, www.westmorelandtransit.com.

Those who complete the survey will have a chance to win a $25 gift card.

Project manager Tyler Beduhn said Kimley-Horn expects to have a draft transit plan ready by fall.

“Then we’ll have a second round where we bring that to the public to comment on,” he said.